Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1885-1890, 1887-04-16
E FALLS TRIBUNE.
A BOTANIsT's CHAT.

sign that toretells the return of animation
to the dormant animal and vegetable life
around him and when, after perhaps sew
eral fruitless searches, he discovers an
early blossom in some propitious nook,
how glad he is, and what a treasure that
first flower is to him! Likewise, when he
hears the first note of the lark, or other
migratory songster, after its return from
more c%ongenial winter haunts, how musi-
cal and sweet the notes do seem! He
feels that all nature is putting away mac
tiyity and preparing to burst the winters
icy chains, and rejoice in regained free
dom.
Naturally enough the feeling which
seems to pervade his surroundings affects
him, for everything seems full of JOY and
merry gladness. Yet, at the same time,
with all the joy this season brings, there
is a deeper. more tender feeling which
tempers any untoward eAuberance Of
spirits that might be exhibited, and one
can feelingly say with Mary Hewitt
The ~spring-she is a blessed thing!
She is the mother of the flowers;
She is the mate OF birds and bees,
The partner Of our r~everies,
Our star OF hope through wintry hours.
up! let us to the fields away
And breathe the fresh and balmy air;
The bird is building in the tree,
The flower hath open'd to the bee
And health, and love, and peace are there
We have not here in Montana the shady
hedgerows and verdant lanes that may be
found in the East, neither have We many
of the spring flowers and delicate ferns
which there fill the wood with fragrance
and 7erdure: ours is a different country,
and a different cline. The vegetation,
taken as a whole, is typical of the eastern
slope of the Rocky Mountains. Here we
have ~long-continued times of dryness and
much wind, which sweeps over the hills
and p~rairies, frequently with great VIC
SHOWS, at unexpected times, which would
Of a surety blast those plants the wind had
not broken down. were our vegetation like
much Of that found in the East. But Our
native plants, like every other native thing,
are we'll adapted to the climate. It is a
noticeable fact that the earliest flowers are
never tall. They lie close to the ground,
sometimes almost buried in the short
grass. The wind certainly cannot harm
such small objects, and even the frost
seldom Injuries them. On Prospect Hill
flowers viii ere long be in bloom, that will
vie with any States flowers forr:chness Of
color ana beauty Of appearance.
Only the primary laws of nature appear
to be c~hangeless, the other so-called laws
of nature are subject to unlimited change:
they are unfxed and very elastic. This
especially applies TO growth and develop
ment in the animal and vegetable king
aoms. Therefore, life. vegetable and ami
NAL, is able to live almost anywhere. To
those who did not know, it would not
seem possible that plants OF animals could
live, grow and multiply in wafer at nearly
the boiling point, yet certain alge and
fish do exist III such conditions, and even
the very opposite extreme-snow and ice
is not destitute of its plants, for forty
species are known to exist amid the snow
and ice OF the Arctic Zone.
e But spring has come, and now is the
time for finding the pretty MOSES in fruit
and the rich green algse in an active state.
A beautiful alga grows near the dam,
sometimes growing ten feet long and send
ing out beautiful. delicate branches of
living green from all sides. It is a species
of cIadepho7a. Other pretty kinds will
soon be out, and they look SO beautiful
when spread upon a sheet of white paper.
But under the microscope their simple
structure is seen with ease, and then they
seem really wonderful. Another kind,
found in the Giant Spring, appears to the
naked eye like a lot of ehoco~late-colored
beads threaded together, but under the
microscope each bead is seen to be a round
cluster of little branches, all radiating from
the central stem. Another kind, called
ento1ophora 6~Rtestinayis, on account of the
shape of its fronds, is now in an active
state. This species is the long, green,